Cyber & Technology — 2026-06-12

French Authorities Accuse Israeli Firm BlackCore of Election Interference Operations in France Scotland and New York

BLUFFormal charges against a BlackCore principal by December 2026 are unlikely, elevating the unresolved commissioning chain as the central intelligence gap across five targeted countries.

Marc-Antoine Brillant, head of France's disinformation detection service Viginum, stated on Thursday that BlackCore's operations extended beyond France's March 2026 municipal elections to Scotland, the 2025 New York City municipal election, Angola, and Togo 12. A joint Libération and Haaretz investigation uncovered influence-operation systems routed through servers in Britain, Germany, Finland, and Lithuania, with BlackCore's web infrastructure sharing connections to two Israeli firms, Galacticos and SNI 1. Two French investigations are now open: Paris prosecutors are examining suspected crimes including foreign espionage and election fraud with false news, while domestic intelligence is separately probing who commissioned the campaign 2. The confirmed targets in France were three France Unbowed candidates: Sébastien Delogu in Marseille, François Piquemal in Toulouse, and David Guiraud in Roubaix 12.

Analysis
Formal charges against a BlackCore principal by December 2026 are unlikely. The assessment carries high confidence: the commissioning chain remains unresolved, digital influence prosecutions require extended forensic work, and European courts lack precedent for adjudicating a foreign firm under espionage statutes. The probe into commissioners is more consequential than the Paris criminal inquiry. Shared infrastructure linking BlackCore to Galacticos and SNI points to a commercial interference-for-hire ecosystem, though Haaretz's investigation lacks cross-strand verification. The confirmed LFI targeting is as consistent with domestic French political commissioning as foreign state direction, which would reduce the case to electoral fraud and shift the investigation entirely inside France. Whether charges land by December determines whether allied security bodies gain a prosecutorial template or remain reliant on attribution and diplomatic pressure.
4 sources
  1. Israeli Firm BlackCore Suspected of Meddling in NYC, Scotland Elections, French Official Says - Haaretz
  2. Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of election interference in NYC, Scotland - The Jerusalem Post
  3. French official accuses Israeli firm of also meddling in elections in New York City, Scotland - Times of Israel
  4. Israeli firm BlackCore suspected of meddling in New York and Scotland votes, France says - Daily Maverick

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